Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
January 4, 2015 - W1501

Today I want to talk about the processes of God and the purposes of God. By being obedient to His purpose, and by being steadfast to His process, regret will be driven out of our lives.

 At the beginning of a new year, we sometimes get transfixed on a new goal or a new resolution, and we tell God what we want Him to do.  This is because we think that we will only be happy if things turn out the way we want them to.  This is not so, because scripture tells us that God’s ways are not our ways.  God’s ways are higher and better because He can see the obstacles and because there is an eternal purpose, manifested by going through an adversity or circumstance.

 I would like to share with you a humorous story about a small church preacher who died and went to Heaven.  God then showed him his house - a broken down shack with leaking faucets and a leaking toilet.  Next to his shack was a massive 15,000 square foot mansion that God said was owned by Mano, a taxi cab driver.   The preacher replied to God by saying that Mano came from his town and was a terrible driver.  Mano had over a dozen speeding tickets linked to his name and scared people to death when he drove.   God responded by saying, “You were right, ‘When you preached, the people slept.’”

 Today’s message was motivated by a past speaker who used the Chinese characters “Wei Gee”,    The speaker said that one character stood for crisis, and the other character for opportunity.   He went on to explain that out of every crisis, an opportunity arises.

 In the Bible, no miracle began without a great danger or risk.  All miracles began with a huge problem or circumstance that was in absolute adversity.  However, God’s purpose and glory was manifested as people persevered through to overcome whatever was set before them. 

 Although we may not like adversity, or the process of God, we will miss His purpose if we bail out.  Today we say to others “Happy New Year!” with the expectation of a crisis free year - that your marriage will be stable, that things will go as planned, that God will bless you; however, this cannot be promised.  What I can promise you is that every crisis contains a glorious opportunity to see and trust Jesus Christ.

 Today’s message comes from a story about David, out of the book of Samuel.

David is a fugitive, always fleeing with his family and warriors, and defects from Israel.   He lives amongst the Philistines (his former enemies), because he believed that this was the only way that Saul would stop tracking him.  

 While in Philistine territory David made friends with King Achish, who gave him the city of Ziklag to live in because he liked him so much.  On a regular basis David fought against the enemies of the Philistines.  This enabled him to gain favor from the Philistine King.

 A day came when Saul decided that he and his army would fight against the Philistines. Tired of being pursued by Saul, David told King Achish that he would help fight against Saul.  King Achish thought that this was wonderful; however, the commanders told King Achish that they did not want David to fight with them because David may turn against them in the mist of battle.

David became extremely angry at their decision; however this was a blessing in disguise for David.  If David had joined King Achish and the Philistines in the battle, then he would have been blamed for Saul and Jonathan’s deaths.

 The first resolution we want to make for the New Year is:

1. I WILL LOOK AT EVERY ADVERSITY AND SEARCH FOR GOD’S GREATER PLAN.

 An opportunity springs out of every adversity that we face.

“David said to Achish, ‘But what have I done…that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?’  But Achish replied to David, ‘I know that you are pleasing in my sight, like an angel of God; nevertheless the commanders of the Philistines have said, “He must not go up with us to the battle.”  Now then rise early in the morning with the servants of your lord who have come with you, and as soon as you have risen early in the morning and have light, depart.’”  (1 Sam. 29:8-10)

 David was upset.

Have you ever been upset due to a roadblock in your life?  Only to later find out that this was a blessing in disguise?

 Recently, all 162 passengers on board an air Asia flight from Indonesia to Singapore perished in the ocean.  What you may not know is that a former Indonesian beauty queen and the rest of her family of nine, were scheduled to be on that flight.  However, none of those family members received e-mails form the airline that their flight was rescheduled to leave at 5:20 instead of 7:30.   As a result, the entire family missed this flight. The beauty queens husband was upset and ranting. Forty-two minutes later her husband praised God when he heard news that the plane they missed crashed into the ocean.   He said that “It was God’s plan that my family did not go on this flight.  It was a blessing in disguise.”

•          I WON’T ONLY LOOK AT THE process BUT I WILL LOOK FOR GOD’S purpose.

The process is what you are going through, but God’s purpose is to build something in you as you go through the process.

We often look at the process because we do not like it; however the purpose is to teach you to trust God, which will deepen your faith, and you will see a miracle.

David was angry for not going out to battle against Saul. At the same time, the Amalekites were attacking the city of Ziklag.  “Then it happened when David and his men came to Ziklag.  The Amalekites had made a raid, overthrown Ziklag and burned it with fire, and they took captive the women and all who were in it both small and great.”(1 Sam. 30:1-2)

If David had gone to battle; God’s purpose for David’s life would have been thwarted.

 God has something greater for you.  He closes one door because he wants you to experience something far greater.  I often miss what God wants for me because I want the process to be nice.  The process is temporary.  God’s purpose is eternal.

Sometimes God has to take you through adversity in order to build up something that He has purposed for you somewhere else.  If God is going to shoot a man North, He first has to pull him South like a bow and arrow.  “The steps of a man that God delights in are ordered by the Lord.”  (Ps 37)

 The building we are sitting in would have never happened if it were not for the collapse of Farrington High School’s auditorium.  Since then, we have planted many churches.  We wouldn’t have been ready to take the steps of faith to build this expansion so that more people could come to Christ.

 Regret is driven out of your life when you understand that the steps of a man are ordered by the Lord.  If you understand the purposes of God then you will be able to weather the storm and come through the processes of God.

The second resolution is:

2. I WILL LOOK AT EVERY uncertainty AS A WAY TO BUILD MY trust.

 I do not regret my past that was filled with struggles, challenges, and set-backs.  This is because God instilled in me attributes that no school or college could have done.  When I was 31 years of age, God called me to Hilo.  It was a financially difficult time for Anna and me, but we obeyed and went. During this time I learned to fix up my house and flip them to sell at a profit.  I also learned to write articles for magazines to supplement my income.  This was a process that I had to submit to because His purpose was far greater.  If we obey God through the process, we will come out just fine.

 In continuance of the end of this story on David, the Bible said, “So David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken…nothing of theirs was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughter, spoil or anything that they had taken for themselves; David brought it all back.”(1 Sam 30:18-19)

 God says that if you look at every uncertainty as a way to build your trust, then the purposes of God will come to pass.   These are two of the resolutions we want to make.

 A long time ago I prayed to God and asked God to nail me with a two by four, or if He had to, get me deathly sick if I am going the wrong way. I further asked him to take me home if I was doing something dumb that would hurt many people.  One day I was about to purchase a mall in Arizona.  However, before I could send the money, I got extremely sick to the point that I thought I was going to die.  So I got down on my knees and prayed.  God then spoke to me and told me that purchasing the mall, though not wrong, was still not the correct purpose for my life.  As soon as I accepted His message, I started feeling better, and within eight hours, I was back to normal.

 I am still learning that we sometimes want the process to be crisis free and smooth; however, God says that He is not committed to that.  Instead, He will use each crisis to bring about a purpose.  Let’s make a resolution to look at every adversity as a means to see God’s plan. Let us not be so enamored with the process, but rather with the purposes of God.   If we look at every uncertainty as a way to build our trust, we will be doing two out of the four resolutions that I will be talking about next week. This will drive regret out of your life, and you will begin to walk with the redeemer, the healer, the one who is committed to you.

 Questions:

•          What have you learned through your own crisis?
•          What are the reasons behind uncertainties and set-backs in our lives?
•          How was David blessed by going through the process.as mentioned in 1st Samuel?